1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to wireless transactions using wireless peripheral devices, and specifically to a wireless telephone serving as a point of sale for debit transactions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless communication technology has allowed individuals considerable freedom in how and when they communicate. Analog signal-based cellular telephone technology, which allows people to travel freely while always having access to a telephone, has grown and developed into digital-based systems and hybrid telephone/multifunction devices so that a number of functions are now provided in a single integrated device. For example, it is not uncommon to provide advanced contract information in combination with wireless telephone technology, as evidenced by Qualcomm's pdQ™ Smartphone and Motorola's Startac™ Clipon Organizer.
In addition, wireless phones themselves have become much more sophisticated, incorporating the use of so called smart cards, which allow for increased functionality in wireless devices. Such cards can store electronic money and user credit/debit information, within a developing industry standard for electronic data interchange (EDI) transactions. There are two basic kinds of smart cards. An “intelligent” smart card contains a central processing unit—a CPU—that actually has the ability to store and secure information, and “make decisions,” as required by the card issuer's specific applications needs. Because intelligent cards offer a “read/write” capability, new information can be added and processed. For example, monetary value can be added and decremented as a particular application might require.
The second type of card is often called a memory card. Memory cards can contain many forms of information, including stored value which the user can “spend” in a pay phone, retail, vending or related transaction. Such cards come in both “contactless” form, which are read by readers when such cards are in the proximity of the reader, and cards adapted for electrical coupling to specific adapters, such as those found in many newer cellular phones.
Beyond merely producing a wireless device, the wireless service provider faces the challenge of ensuring the revenue stream from it's constituents. There are a number of means of access to the service component of wireless technology. Traditionally, for example, when one wants a cellular telephone, one enters into a service contract with a cellular provider either with the provider directly or with a retailer, and the hardware is configured to work through the service. Typically, the user uses the phone at will and simply pays a monthly cost computed by the service provider. However, there are other service options.
One option to the traditional account maintenance option is so called “pre-paid” cellular service. Those users who have dubious credit ratings, or, for example, corporations who seek to control the cost of a number of individual phones, pre-purchase cellular service from a particular provider for a particular phone and access to the cellular service is typically cut off once the pre-paid amount of the service is used up.
Renewing prepaid service time is somewhat inconvenient. The user must return to the retail establishment to provide cash or credit information, and the service is recharged by the establishment. Typically, the service provider tracks usage information and the amount of prepayment entirely at the service end, using the cellular phone identification to record time used and remaining.
Hence, it is generally inconvenient to renew prepaid cellular phone service once such service has expired. As such, the popularity of such service is limited.
One pre-paid system currently in use is the Philips ISIS telephone, which allows the use of a prepaid calling card for use with wireless telephone service. However, while this allows for a pay-per-call service, once the calling cards are depleted, the customer must go to a retail location and purchase new calling cards. Further, the card numbers must be entered the first time a call is made with a new card when making a call. Further, the customer must pay for air time while the phone accesses the off-line calling card account and air time costs with this system is very high. A further disadvantage with this system is the fact that customers cannot roam into different systems, as the calling card value is housed in a system localized database.